Handle With Care
by Rob Bell
Summary: Just over a year into their mission Archer and his crew come across a new race but is everything as it seems


Handle With Care  
  
1  
  
Flying at warp four point nine felt no different than warp five to most of the crew of Enterprise but to Charles 'Trip' Tucker III the chief engineer of the ship it felt a lot different. The artificial gravity felt a little lighter as it isn't quite aligned to flying at warp five; Trip was working on it though, it was on his to do list as well was many another items of greater importance. A couple of power relays had blown when a few engineers tried to re-route some power to a temporary power shunt unit but that went totally wrong when a little too late they realised the power was not compatible for the transfer. Walking around the large central engine in engineering trip briskly walked to the main console on a specially made raised platform for his console. Entering a few command codes the console blinked to life and Trip viewed a few diagnostic and status profiles of the newly made repairs. Smiling proudly at the green lights next to the text agreeing with his own computer in his head that the repairs were done he put his console onto standby and nodded at lieutenant Kelvin who was the in charge of engineering for the night shift. Leaving sickbay Trip walked a little faster than normal to his quarters, he was expected to attend one of the frequent command staff dinners in the Captain's private mess and Trip was running a little late. Reaching his quarters he threw the briefcase full of diagnostic pads onto his bunk and stripped and jumped into the shower cubicle to freshen up for the dinner. After showering he dressed into some informal clothing as he was off duty now and Captain Archer preferred the crew to be comfortable while off duty.  
  
Finishing brushing down his jumper Trip walked back toward the door of his quarters and snuffed at the briefcase of pads and decided to deal with them when he returns. Within minutes Trip was entering the Captain's private mess to see a full contingent of officers all standing from their chairs to greet him. Making apologises for his lateness Captain Archer quickly dismissed them and Trip took his seat next to the captain and opposite of T'Pol. An ensign quickly approached from behind poured Trip a drink. Taking a quick sip from it he put it down just as Archer restarted the conversation "We were just on about building a swimming pool in one of the spare compartments near the rear torpedo bays, whatyathink Trip?" Smirking, Trip knew all too well about Archer's passion for water polo he couldn't contain the outbreak of a smile on his face. "Yeah sounds great, maybe we could put some fish in there as well for some fishing, I hear rainbow trout are particularly good this time of year" "I believe having live fish onboard the vessel is an unwise addition to the ship Commander Tucker. Also the fish would contaminate the water being used by the crew for swimming" T'Pol smoothly said bringing Trips smile to a look of bemusement. "It was a joke T'Pol. Don't Vulcan's joke?" "Vulcan's do not joke, since the outcome is an emotion. It also seems a waste of time to tell jokes, after studying the results of your jokes Commander Tucker by Vulcan standards it's very unnecessary." Stunned Trip picked his jaw off the table that nearly knocked over his drink "Unnecessary! My jokes are always to the highest of quality possible by Earth standards. I'm sorry if you Vulcans don't appreciate a good joke."  
  
"The statement was not intended to cause offence, I apologise if any was given" "Its ok T'Pol, I was just messing with you." T'Pol's impeccable face never flustered and remained exactly as it was. Just then a couple of waiters brought in the dinners for the senior staff and placed them in front of them. Everyone's nasal cavities were stimulated even T'Pol's even if she decided to ignore it. The waiters quickly departed the room leaving a single red uniformed ensign sanding flat against the bulkhead ready to attend to anyone's needs. "So Trip" the captain once again restarted the conversation "How's Engineering since the blow out?" "Ah, she's all fine captain. We are all hunky dory down below, shouldn't hear a peep out of her for a long while." "Ah good, are you all set for our next stop to the Solaris Cluster? According to the Vulcan database it's a cluster of solar systems all similar to our own. One system is almost an exact replica apart from the size of the planets. All going to plan we intend to spend two weeks exploring each of the systems in turn. And at every chance beam down to every M class planet and explore." "Exactly what I signed up for sir" Reed said joining the conversation in between tucking into his steak pie and mashed potatoes and onion gravy. "I mean all this flying into the unknown is thrilling as it is but there seems to be nothing like getting down and dirty with a new planet never before touched by humans" Phlox suddenly looked up from his dinner and stared at Reed "Or Denobulans" Reed finished. "Thank you lieutenant" Phlox said slurping up some kind of worm like animal. "We should be there in three days if we maintain our current speed" T'Pol added in her calm demeanour, although the crew never knew T'Pol to speak in any other tone at all. "Well I for one can not wait": Phlox piped up. "This cluster apparently has some interesting animal life that may have some interesting medical appliances for the crew and humanity as a whole. Or even universal medical appliances for all races. Fascinating stuff isn't it. And to think my mother tried to stop me from becoming a medical exchange officer." "Well we'll drink to that." Everyone raised their glasses and Captain Archer spoke "To Phlox, may we ever be grateful he made the right choice, and that his mother never pressed him too hard about changing his mind." Everyone laughed and cheered in chorus even Phlox but T'Pol remained absolutely neutral in her emotions as she sipped on her water. Archer looked toward T'Pol and shook his head in amazement. A little over a year and a half and she still hasn't tried any other kind of drink.  
  
A minute or two of relative quiet followed when the comm. panel chimed. Everyone slightly jumped as the almost silence was abruptly interrupted by the chirping panel. Pushing his seat back and dropping the napkin that rested on his knee on the table he walked to the panel and pressed a button. "Archer here what is it?" Mayweather, the Chief Helmsman spoke through the comm. system "We just narrowly missed a collision with some small ship from the starboard side sir. I have dropped us out of warp. There is a star system a few million kilometres behind us that according to the Vulcan database is deemed unapproachable due to them being a pre-warp civilisation. My guess is we nearly halted their first warp jump in its tracks sir." "Ok Travis we will be right out." Archer cut off the comm. and returned to the table but did not sit. Ok guys you all heard what's going on; let's get to our duty stations. I think a new warp race want to say hello." Everyone quickly finished the bite they were eating and left the room to get their departments fully ready for whatever may be needed apart from the chief science officer T'Pol. Waiting for the doors to close she turned to Archer. "Captain, I believe it would be wise to contact the Vulcans. They would be better suited to handle this." Archer looked at T'Pol trying hard to hide his anger at what she had proposed. "The Vulcans.I don't think the Vulcans are best suited for us humans to make first contact with a new species. They may be more.experienced at such things but we aren't going to get any better without any practise.anyway the Vulcan's deemed this planet 'unapproachable' so my guess is they won't be anywhere near but it just happens that we are. So I see that we are perfectly suited for the job." "May I advise extreme caution captain? I recommend we do extensive scans from here first before we go down or try to contact their government." Settling down in a chair Archer adjusted himself into a comfy posture and looked back at T'Pol. "Don't worry T'Pol any advise you have will be most appreciated. I want this to go off without a hitch. I want to try and make a friend of a race in this universe. It seems we are making more enemies than allies." T'Pol stepped closer and seemed to be more relaxed in her posture. "Any advice I have to give you will get captain." "I can bet on that. So come on lets see what this race has in store." Archer smiled and stood up and walked to the door and stepped aside and let T'Pol leave first and head for the bridge.  
  
2  
  
"Control Port to Freedom Flight1 be advised Launch in thirty kilmots. Good luck." Freedom Flight1 to Control Port, we are advised. Next contact will be from orbit before secondary phase." "Acknowledged Freedom Flight1. Prepare for the ten-kilmot countdown from now. Drenma looked to his co-pilot and got an acknowledging glance that this was going to be history in the making. .Five.four.three. The command pod scuttled intensely with vibrations of the engines priming and the braces felt like they were slipping off but they still had their firm grips over their suits. "This is for Artoisia, Melpok. We will find an answer out there for our people. .One. Blast off. From the command pods view ports fire was that all could be seen. Immense furious fire accompanied by earthquake beating shaking, then the windows went aqua blue with wisps of white signalling it was sky outside.  
  
"Confirmed, we have lift off, Freedom Fight1 has lift off and is streaking away."  
  
The rocket streaked into the afternoon sky, quickly speeding out of the view of the viewers with their naked eyes. After exactly one minute forty- six seconds the ignition burn quit and the rocket silently slid into an orbit around Artoisia. "Ok prepare extended flight wings for extending" Drenma spoke while recovering from the rocky ride to orbit A few seconds passed with some professionally precision button tapping. "Flight wings prepped for extending" Melpok confirmed; "Good, break from orbit and extend." A minute passed and the hull covering the extending wings blew away and floated silently and majestically into space. "Wings fully extended, the wings are powering up, charge now at 30 hendrons and rising." "Final check of warp jump products." Drenma ordered. "All warp products show green. We are good for go." Control Port this is Freedom Flight1" Almost instantly a reply came through. "This is Control Port go ahead Freedom Flight." "We are green for warp jump, requesting codes for warp jump console." "Understood, transmitting.transmission complete." Looking down at his console Drenma smiled "Acknowledged, we have codes, uploading now.we have warp jump console on green. Permission to go for warp jump!" "Permission granted Freedom Flight, the hearts of all of us on Artoisia are with you." "Thank you Control Port, next contact will be at the end of the warp jump, Freedom Flight1 signing off. Ok Melpok let's bet this over with, engage the warp jump." "Engaging the warp jump.now." The rocket shot like an athlete leaving the sprint blocks and disappearing into a giant gulf of subspace light.  
  
"Disengaging warp jump now." The rocket screamed as it braked through space, trying to stop just before the furthest probed regions of known space to them the Rentalctan asteroid belt, but they have miscalculated the stopping distance and they frantically tried to dodge the asteroids but one spun toward them at an alarming rate and smashed into them on their underbelly of the rockets hull spinning them up and out of the asteroid belt toward asteroid free space. Coming to a gradual stop Freedom Flight1 stopped and was a drift. "Whoa, that was some ride, wasn't it Melpok" Drenma said clasping his head with both hands trying to stop the spinning. "Are you sure we are finished? My head is spinning" Melpok jested. "That would be due to our mistake of hitting the asteroids. It was a very lucky escape." Calming down Melpok gathered his thoughts. "Was it just me or before we disengaged the warp but did we brush by something?" Looking bemused a little Drenma tried to remember "I'm not sure what it was but we will take a look when we make the return trip." Melpok looked over his console and his smile diminished wildly. "If we make a return trip. It seems our warp jump engine took damage from the asteroids. The extended wings are buckled. We only have pre warp engines available." Looking worried Drenma studied his console. "According to calculations it will take us two kilfroms to return home." "Two kilfroms! Do we have supplies that will last that long?" Melpok glanced over the vessels food inventory "No, we have another for about half a kilfrom, if we ration it may last a kilfrom at most but no way possible for two kilfroms" Melpok sighed heavily as the desperate situation hit home. "So.we have become victims of our own success." Drenma said glumly. Melpok looked down to the deck plate with disappointment as he thought about the fact he may never see his family or friends back on Artoisia again when Drenma sparked up with an idea. "What about that thing you think we brushed by. It might be some kind of ship; our spatial probes would have picked it up before since we nearly mapped inch by inch this route for travel, it must be some kind of .of 'alien'." "You really think so?" Melpok voice went high with worry as he heard the statement. "Well I can't see what else it could be. And at this precise moment if it is a ship it's probably our best bet of getting home before we are dead." Melpok studied the facial features of Drenma and saw the strong belief in Drenma's eyes over what he was saying and that comforted him and made him believe too. "Well there is no point in arguing. I am fully up for that idea, plotting course now and full pre warp engine power, ETA is.a little over two hours." Smiling Drenma concentrated on his console then looked back over at his colleague. "Ok good, engage the engines." "Engines engaged" Melpok confirmed as the Freedom Flight1 streaked slower than normal back toward Artoisia in hope to discover what the strange object was that nearly collided with them.  
  
*****  
  
The turbolift doors swished open and T'Pol disembarked closely followed by Captain Archer. T'Pol hooked left and headed for her seat at her science station while archer sat in his central command chair on the bridge. Archer looked over a read out on his chairs arm console then got up and moved to the situation table located at the back of the bridge away from the main part hustle and bustle. Doing so it attracted the attention of all present on the bridge and Archer simply smiled as if to say mind your own business for now. Tapping a few buttons on the table he then walked to the front left corner of the bridge and walked into his ready room. Hearing the footsteps approaching Porthos was already wagging his tail by the door waiting for his master to enter. The doors open with the normal swish and in walked Archer as soon as the doors closed behind him he dropped to his knees to allow Porthos to welcome him in the only way his pet dogs knows how - licking his face off. Pulling away from his daily face licking Archer went to a shelf behind his workstation in his cramped ready room and took down a large ball and began to throw in against the bulkhead catching it with one hand while he sat in the chair reviewing some information piled on his work console. Somehow the beat of the ball hitting the bulkhead then his waiting palm helped him think. After several minutes of ball thumping thinking Archer caught the ball solidly in his hand and rested it in his lap as he reviewed some information about Vulcan procedures on first contacts. He hoped there would be some scraps of approaches humans could put into practise but there was very little. The Vulcans were notoriously detailed and rather boring with their reports. Maybe that is why he hates reading T'Pol's reports Archer thought continuing his reading. The door chimed. "Enter." The doors swished open once again and in stepped T'Pol carrying a data pad. Noticing it was T'Pol Archer jumped a little and wriggled around in embarrassment as if she could read minds. T'Pol looked on as Archer finished his wriggling as he regain his posture then began to speak. "I have a report about the initial scans of the planet captain." Noticing he seemed uncomfortable about something she said T'Pol took a small step back. "If I have come at a bad time it is ok, to summarise the report there is nothing major to report so far, deeper scans are still in progress and will be finished within the next hour Lieutenant Reed informs me. And on another note that warp ship is slowly returning at full impulse to our position, scans conclude it will be here within fifty minutes. Scans show the vessel to pose no security threat; it has no weapons that we can detect. Also the scans show it's damaged probably that they collided with the nearby asteroid belt heading toward the next planet." "Ok so in a nutshell you're telling me we have fifty minutes to organise a welcome home banner for them." Archer jested. "This seems like an inappropriate time for making jokes captain. We have very little time to prepare ourselves for this first contact. If this goes badly it will reflect badly on future negotiations between this planet and other warp capable species." "Nothing like a little pressure is there T'Pol, get the heart pumping, adrenaline flowing. Its ok we are quite prepared I believe, we have Hoshi's UT, we have the scans finishing in around fifty minutes. Just get the report done as fully as possible and I guess we will have to play it by ear when it comes to the crunch" Archer smiled as he saw the disbelief in T'Pol's face "Aye captain; I think it is appropriate for you to know I will be making a formal report at the end for the Vulcan High Command." Archer glumly smiled as he tried to use the water polo ball as a stress ball. "I thought as much, put in a good word from me would you." "Of course captain" T'Pol said with no real intention to do so. "Was there anything else?" Archer asked keeping his easily built up anger in. T'Pol just shook her head. "Ok then, dismissed. See how much of that report we can get before our guests arrive. Oh and can you get Hoshi to try and pick up communications on that ship, any language barriers knocked down before we start can only make our lives better." T'Pol shot an agreeing glance toward Archer and responded. "Of course captain." With that T'Pol turned and left archer's ready room.  
  
On her way back to her station T'Pol stopped by Hoshi's communications workstation. Ensign Sato, "The captain wishes you to pick up on the ship's communications and run it through the universal translator. He wants as many language barriers knocked down before they arrive." "I'll get right on it sub-commander" replied the porcelain faced communications officer. Hoshi put her communications ear piece into her ear and thought about how much it reminded her of a late twentieth century object known as earphones that allowed for music to be heard by a single person from something known as a Walkman. Concentrating back on her new assignment Hoshi began to 'spy' on what the hopefully soon to be friends were saying. Tapping into a communications array on the vessels bow Hoshi recorded a minute of speech she played it back through the UT and luckily it seemed to be a simple task for the UT. Hoshi tripped back in her mind to the days when Enterprise still smelt of fresh bulkheads and unused leather clad seats and when the UT was nothing on the now regularly updated version. Also back then Hoshi remembered she wasn't the most adventurous member of the crew but now she was settling in fine with this life in space and collapsing the boundaries of the unknown with every centimetre the vessel moved. Her console flashed and had deciphered the language with relative ease and speed. Smiling she realised this first contact would run smoothly this side but she hoped they could make out humanities language easily. Hoshi silently whispered a prayer it would but her console would not allow her to be absolutely sure what her friends would hear when they spoke.  
  
*****  
  
"It is a ship. A real big one! Definitely aliens, I told you." Drenma said. "If I'm not mistaken I believed you. It's mighty impressive. Do you think it's friendly? Should we go around it? How fast can it go? Melpok asked in quick succession. "I hope its friendly, I think it may be a wise option, and I do not know how fast it can go. Does that answer your questions?" Drenma asked trying to calm the now nervous Melpok. "Just one more, can we contact it?" Looking at his console Drenma found the answer. "No not yet, we are out of radio range, another thirty minutes should do it." "Does our radar tell us anything about the ship?" Melpok asked with a nervous anticipation. Skipping over the readout from that radar scans Drenma read out what he had on his console. "It seems it has some kind of scripture on the outside along with some other marking on all sides of it. I think the blue section at its front is its radar device and the long cylindrical things at the back must act like our wings. In fact it appears our ships are based around the same principle. Quite amazing.the way two alien races both launch vessels into space and come up with relatively same things but in different sizes. Let's hope they can help with our desperate need Melpok. To be honest I don't think there is much time left for us as a whole.  
  
*****  
  
"We're in communications range now sir" Mayweather spoke breaking the silence on the bridge. "Are we ready? Do we need more time?" Archer asked around the bridge crew but mainly focus upon T'Pol. She looked up from her console and looked toward the awaiting captain leaning over almost like an impatient child. "I do not believe we are going to get much more useful information in what is left from the scans." Switching sides of his chair he leaned toward Reed sitting at the armoury come tactical station. "Any sign of weaponry Malcolm?" The Englishman reviewed his console readouts and drew a blank. "No weapon detection of any kind" Reed replied sounding definitely glum at the prospect of no firefight with someone. "How are we holding on with the UT Hoshi" Archer said once again leaning round on his chair. "From the advanced recordings of their language from their communications we seem to have no problem deciphering them sir but I do not know if they have the ability to understand what we say. I'd recommend taking it easy to start with until we know for sure they fully understand us." "Thank you Hoshi, I'll keep that in mind." Standing up and tugging on his uniform straightening the jumpsuit out he took a couple of steps forward nearing the edge of the upper level where his command chair sat. He looked over to Hoshi trying to hide his nerves but Hoshi caught a slight niggle of them in his looked and smiled pleasantly as she informed him the channel was open. Turning back to the viewscreen Archer composed his self and began first contact. "Alien vessel this is Captain Jonathan Archer, captain of the Starfleet vessel Enterprise. Are you able to contact us back?"  
  
*****  
  
A blinking blue like caught the corner of Drenma's eye and he jumped as he realised what the flashing was alerting him to. "We are being sent a message from the alien vessel." "Is it a word message or speaking?" Melpok asked as his nerves intensified "Speaking. I'll play it over the speakers." 'Alien dretsva this is Captain molpsuy Archer, captain of the Stargang vessel Enitprise. Are you able koj contact . back?" Looking half confused Drenma tapped his console. "I'll try to clear the message up through our language bank. Running it through now. Here goes" The message replayed. "Alien vessel this is Captain Jonathan Archer, captain of the Starfleet vessel Enterprise. Are you able to contact us back?" After matching frequencies of the message Melpok patched through a link to the message. "Ok we are ready to reply if you want to." Looking back toward Melpok, Drenma looked at his shaking hands. "I think we have to reply for the hope of Artoisia. Are we ready?" "Yes" Melpok replied calmly. "This is the Artoisian warp ship Freedom Flight1, Please state your intentions here."  
  
"We have a reply coming through sir" Mayweather smiled back at Archer. "We have contact" Hoshi beamed. "Freedom Flight1 this is the Starfleet vessel Enterprise from a planet far away called Earth, are you from this planet?" "This is our planet yes Artoisia. What are you doing here by our planet?" Drenma asked as if his vessel could even attempt to stop Enterprise. "We are here with peaceful intentions. We are explorers from our planet and we came by your planet and thought it would be good to explore. We were under the impression your kind weren't warp capable." "Oh well we are the first of our kind to do so. I guess we will go down in history for this. First warp flight and first contact with aliens." Archer looked round the bridge and smiled gallantly especially at T'Pol that seemed to relieve her nervousness at their readiness for this. "We would be deeply honoured if you would come aboard so we can talk on a more personal approach. If that's alright with you of course?" A brief pause followed then the crackle of the quiet broke off "We accept graciously to come aboard your gallant vessel." "Excellent, keep your craft steady, we will manoeuvre to dock with you. Enterprise out." Archer spun with enthusiasm and tapped ensign Mayweather at the helm "Travis." "Already on it sir. The ship will be a little tricky to dock with but I'll get us there" Mayweather said cutting the captain in half sentence. "Never doubted you Travis" Archer said tapping his shoulder again and walking toward the turbolift. "T'Pol, you're with me." Archer pressed the comm. on. "Trip, meet me and T'Pol at Docking Hatch 1." Trip responded with his usual Southern American accent. "I'll be there in a tick sir. I ain't far from there now." Archer closed the channel and stepped into the lift with T'Pol and dropped down to the level of the docking hatch. After a small walk form the lift archer and T'Pol cornered round a bulkhead to see Trip waiting by the hatch leaning against it. "What took y'all so long?" Trip jested T'Pol was about to responded but paused with her mouth open then closed it as she realised it was his usual joking nature. Archer looked up and saw the red light go green as it confirmed the pressures of both vessels now match and the doors to the gangway could open. He pressed the hatch open button on the panel and the doors swished open to reveal their hopefully new friends.  
  
3 


End file.
